Has El Chapo Escaped 2018
The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the imprisoned former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, was arrested on Monday over her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking, the US Department of Justice said.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, a regular attendee at her husband’s trial two years ago, was arrested at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, and is expected to appear in a federal court in Washington on Tuesday.
A lawyer for Coronel could not immediately be identified. It was unclear why Coronel, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, was in the Washington area.
Coronel’s arrest came two years after a celebrated trial in Brooklyn where Guzman, now 63, was convicted of trafficking tons of drugs into the United States as Sinaloa’s leader, where prosecutors said he amassed power through murders and wars with rival cartels.
He was sentenced in July 2019 to life in prison plus 30 years, which the sentencing judge said reflected Guzman’s “overwhelmingly evil” actions. Guzman was sent to ADX Florence in Colorado, the nation’s most secure “Supermax” prison.
Coronel was charged in a one-count complaint with conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines for unlawful importation into the United States.
Prosecutors said Coronel also conspired to aid her husband in his July 2015 escape from the Altiplano prison in Mexico, when he dug a mile-long tunnel from his cell, and began plotting a second escape following his capture by Mexican authorities in January 2016.
Feb 23, 2021 She was seen a lot in 2018 and '19 when El Chapo was in trial in the U.S., always dressed to the nines. Is you might remember a few years ago when El Chapo escaped from a Mexican prison, there. Feb 25, 2021 Coronel, along with El Chapo’s sons and others, “agreed to organize the construction of an underground tunnel linked to Altiplano in order to facilitate Guzman’s escape from prison.” The plot involved purchasing a piece of land near the prison, where a structure was built to disguise the tunneling work. Surprisingly, he had escaped through a 1.5-kilometre tunnel from a small opening in the shower area of his cell. 4 Altiplano has a multitude of ground-level security measures such as the prison being covered in CCTV cameras and access control points. 5 El Chapo was located in.
U.S. and Mexican efforts to fight drug trafficking had become strained when the Justice Department brought drug charges in October against former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos.
The Justice Department unexpectedly dropped that case the following month and let Cienfuegos return to Mexico, in a bid to restore trust in the countries’ security ties.
Cienfuegos was exonerated two months later when Mexico dropped its own case.
Tomas Guevara, an investigator in security issues at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, said Coronel’s arrest might be part of a “pressure strategy” to prompt cooperation from Guzman.
A Mexican official familiar with Coronel’s case, who asked not to be identified, said her arrest appeared to be solely a U.S. initiative, and that Coronel was not wanted in Mexico.
By kmclaughlin@businessinsider.com (Kelly McLaughlin,Erin Snodgrass) of INSIDERThe wife of the notorious drug lord El Chapo is a former beauty queen who unwaveringly supports her husband
- The wife of drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was arrested Monday on drug trafficking charges.
- The Justice Department said Emma Coronel Aispuro helped plot her husband's prison escape in 2015.
- The former beauty queen has stood by her husband since she married him on her 18th birthday.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was arrested Monday, February 22, at an airport in Virginia on international drug trafficking charges, according to the US Department of Justice.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, is accused of helping plot her husband's escape from a Mexican prison in 2015 and was reportedly 'engaged in planning yet another prison escape' before her husband was extradited to the US in 2017, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Has El Chapo Escaped 2018 Cast
Coronel Aispuro, who is a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, is expected to appear in federal court on Tuesday.
The federal trial against the infamous Mexican drug lord and escape artist Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman ended in 2019 when he was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years - and the kingpin's former beauty queen wife was by his side through it all.
Guzman pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges connected to claims that he built a multi-billion-dollar fortune by smuggling cocaine and other drugs across the Mexico-US border.
Has El Chapo Escaped 2018 Movie
After years on the run, Guzman was extradited to the United States in 2017 and was held in solitary confinement in a high-security prison as he awaited trial, The Associated Press reported. He is now serving his life sentence.